I'm 20 years old and curious to invest in stock market with out knowing anything about it.I am currently pursing my B.Tech 3rd year.what should I do?
The best thing you can do for yourself and your hard earned money is to donate it to some poor chap . As it will atleast help them . Investing without learning anything about it is equal to brining your house down for insurance claim. You might or might not end up with the full amount/settlement. You are still in college . use this as an opportunity to read books on investing . Books by/on Peter lynch have always been my favs. Intelligent investor On up wallstreetBeating the street Dual momentum trading Common stocks uncommon profits Are some of the reputed books on investing and fundamental analysis . If you want to go in depth about valuing companies , you can get the book damodaran on valuation .And visit the site of Ashwath damodaran and he has uploaded a series of valuation videos on YouTube .Aswath damodaran is highly respected worldwide for valuation and his way of valuation seems to be the norm even at many big banks .
I am curious about how the stock market works? How is everything planned and what is "buying/selling" of stocks?
No matter the intelligence of investors, the truth is that they sell on the news fed to themby those who don't have to invest to make money. These same experts become very bullish ( buy, buy, buy!) over goodnews and everybody jumps onboard. The next day a glumanalyst reports new data as badand everybody sells at a loss butour former enthusiasticpundit who has invested nothing.The natural inclination is to buyand sell when everyone elsedoes, most intuitive but absolutelywrong for making money.Buy low and sell high is a wonderfullyBroad proscribed axiom that setsthe investor always against thedisired outcome and the actualresults of the strategy. The tideis always shifting inexorablyin one direction or the other.It is another name for timing rhemarket and seasoned tradersfavor avoiding this strategy as a losing one. It doesn't work.Taming the fear reflex to sellon impulse with the herd isa trick only real winners canpull off. It requires morediscipline then most traderspossess. Winners are those whoreach beyond the fear and wait with the certainty that allwill reverse and there is no lossat all when the stock remainsin the portfolio until a morepropitious time.Those who do hold on, have theabsolute psychological key to success in not just the stockmarket but in the much largergame of life as well.
Teen Investing in stock market???
You can't open an investment account in your own name for another year until you are 18. I recommend you take that time and learn all you can about the stock market, so when you are ready you can get started right away. www.investopedia.com is a good place to start. Look at all their beginner articles and tutorials to get started. If you don't like research and reading, don't get involved with stocks. Investopedia also offers a "Stock Market Simulator", which is basically a game that simulates the real stock market. It lets you trade stocks with fake money just to see what it is like, and you can test to see if you know what you are doing or not yet. I saved up $8,000 from my first minimum-wage job before I opened my investment account, but you can likely get by on $5,000. I wouldn't start with much less than that. Don't invest in "hot tips" you hear from people, they're normally wrong. Look into the information for yourself to see if it's a stock you want to buy. Buy solid companies, don't get involved with penny stocks. If you want to cut down your risk since you will likely only have enough for 1 or 2 investments (after that the commissions will start taking a big chunk out of your gains,) I would invest into an ETF (index). It is a group of several stocks in a particular industry, so there is less risk. For example you can invest in a "Gold" ETF and own several big gold companies, or a bank ETF to own many well-known banks. The best advice I can offer is to do the reading and learn the basics for yourself though. Read the articles on investopedia.com, watch the business news on TV, ask your dad about the stock market and how it works if he invests.
Can I make money investing in penny stocks?
You can make a lot of money playing penny stocks. You can also lose a lot of money in penny stocks. I have done both. You typically have to time everything just right. If you wait too long to sell, everyone else that is playing the game sells and the value tanks. If you buy "on the upswing" it's typically too late. You should check out some of the pennystock investing sites, usually they send out one or two good picks every three months...you really have to watch to see what's the trend.
How to get started in Real Estate investing ?
Flipping is probably not going to get required financing these days. It might, but a lot of flippers ended up without a market and lost money. If you can get a property that you can rent, that's a good start, but if you're a junior in college, I'd suggest finding some raw acreage in the path of progress, currently in the sticks as they say, but in the path of urban sprawl. There are lots of places selling raw land for peanuts because there is no current demand for the property. You want something that might not have roads now, but a road is in the master plan, something being sold by an estate, with low taxes, large enough to subdivide in the future. What you can do is plan for a future higher value with low carrying costs. As an alternative, find out about REITs, Real Estate Investment Trusts. They pay a nice dividend, and you gain on the value of the underlying properties when they go up as well. One key thing about REITS vs other "stocks" is taht REITS must distribute almost all of their profit in order to keep the REIT status, so you are assured of dividends, as long as the REIT has properties that are being rented or leased, Warren Buffet got into REITS a few years ago, and even now, he likes stocks that pay dividends. The market may be near a low, and after the election we'll know if the USA is to become a tax and spend social experiment, or a lower tax, smaller government situation where free enterprise can thrive. many voters seem to want the government to provide for them, if that happens, it will be the end of capitalism, so even your real estate ideas will go down the drain. Liberals tend to restrict property use, and want private property to be turned into wildlife sanctuaries for such things as kangaroo rats or some other species going extinct that they think can be saved by stopping people from developing their property. Real estate has a uniqe value -- they aren't making more of it. But the downside is the rather illiquid market for a lot of property, due to the location and small number of buyers for much of it. But it's better than playing the lottery.
Is Treasury Direct a good way to start investing?
Treasury Direct is a great web site & offers some great product for savings. I wouldn't consider this investing. Treasury bills & bonds can be an important part of your portfolio. Make sure you have some liquid assets available in a high interest FDIC insured bank. Two I'd suggest are; http://www.hsbcdirect.com/ http://www.ally.com/ But bonds & bills earn dividends & interest. If you keep them till maturity there is no "capital" growth, like stocks, REITS or commodities. It may be time to learn about Mutual Funds and "asset allocation". Start off by reading; Mutual Funds For Dummies